Open Thread: Joe DiMaggio, in stamp form

In an effort to increase interest in stamp collecting (seriously), the U.S. Postal Service is launching a 2012 commemorative program featuring four baseball players “who were perennial All-Star selections and left an indelible impression on the game.” Joe DiMaggio (right, obviously) is the first to be released in preview form, and the remaining three will be announced in the coming days.

I’m not much of a collector, of anything really, but I do have a big cardboard box on the top shelf of my closet with every stupid little giveaway item I’ve ever gotten at a baseball game, Yankees or otherwise. I’ve got more calenders than I know what to do with, more hats than I could ever wear, more magnets than I could ever stick on my fridge. Is that weird? Typing it out makes me think it’s kinda weird.

Anyway, here is your open thread for the night. The Mets are playing the Padres at home (Pelfrey vs. Stauffer), and you can also watch the Red Sox take on the Twins on ESPN (Wakefield vs. Baker). MLB Network will also be broadcasting a west coast game later on. Talk about whatever you like here, anything goes.

Uh, didn’t Joe DiMaggio bat righty? Doesn’t the portrait on the stamp show him batting lefty? Is that okay?

pat

Right hand on top = RHB

Slugger27

its on the backswing, after the bat already made contact

JCK

Aren’t you generally facing the back on the backswing? Seems like he’d have to be facing the backside of home plate in this picture…

JCK

That should have read “facing the bat“

Ellis

I was thinking the same thing, real awkward position to choose. Looks lefty to me (despite hand position)

YankeesJunkie

Wang starting tonight against the Cubs and I picked him on fantasy so hopefully he does well.

http://www.yankeeanalysts.com/ Matt Imbrogno

I picked Castro in Pick Six in the hope that Wang does not do well.

YankeesJunkie

Go to hell!!!!

Satan

I’ve saved a spot down here for both of you.

The Big City of Dreams

Lol it’s not really as hot down there as they say is it

MannyGeee

It’s a dry heat….

http://bleedingyankeeblue.com Jesse

so let me get this straight, Aj goes tomorrow against Haren, Nova on wednesday and Colon on Thursday?

JohnnyC

It won’t change my opinion of him but I bet AJ pitches well tomorrow and gets his first August win with the Yankees.

http://bleedingyankeeblue.com Jesse

I was thinking the same. Everyone is killing him of late and he’s been pretty good against the Angels the last few years.

Adam B.

too bad Phil can’t start tomorrow, I really hope they don’t send him to the minors, he has nothing left to learn there.

http://bleedingyankeeblue.com Jesse

I wouldn’t mind if he went to AAA. It’s better then him going to the bullpen, AGAIN.

Jake LaMotta’s Left Hook

Jackie Robinson, Roberto Clemente, and Ted Williams are my guesses for the other 3.

http://johnsterling.blogspot.com/ Xstar7

What, no Babe Ruth?

Tom

If “perennial” all star status were a criterion, then one of the candidates would have to be Stan the Man, a supremely great hitter, who has been poorly served by MLB’s memory machine for decades.

Brian S.

Willie Mays went to like what, twenty-one all-star games? I think he will be one. Since DiMaggio was already picked I doubt Mantle or Gehrig will be chosen. Musial, Robinson, Williams, Cobb, Henderson, Clemente, Koufax…all could be the other ones. Offical guess for the last three: Mays, Robinson, Musial.

The toughest cuts were Willie and Yogi. Willie because so many of his great years were in San Francisco and when you think of those great Giants teams, your first memory is Thompson off Branca. Willie certainly captured the imagination of baseball fans, but it doesn’t seem like he quite captured the imagination of New York like the above five. Yogi we love, and he was great, but he’s more of a great supporting actor rather than a leading guy.

Messier makes the list, even though his best days were in Edmonton, because I don’t think there has ever been a New York athlete more definitively at the center of a championship team. And when you take into account “1940!”, the hat-trick after the guarantee against a local rival, and the way that 1994 team absolutely owned this city, Messier has to be on this list.

I think the other four are pretty self-explanatory. Not only were they great, they were iconic.

Adam B.

Robinson, Ruth, Gehrig, Mantle, Dimaggio… It’s all baseball but those are the best of the bunch… I think they will put atleast 1 of LT, Namath, Messier, and Ewing just so its not all baseball.

MikeD

No way Gehrig does not make that list.

Guest

Yeah, Gehrig was a pretty colossal oversight on my part.

He has to make the list over Messier. One year can’t trump everything Gehrig did and what he meant to the city. But what a year!

Hockey is probably fourth for me in terms of favorite sports, but I can’t imagine enjoying a team more than I enjoyed those ’94 Rangers.

Tom

The more I look at that stamp of Dimag, the less I like it. He had what may have been the classic baseball swing. In this representation, he looks awkward.

YankeesJunkie

For all those that have been complaining about how poor the Yankees minor league system has been it has been a pleasure to see Nova, Robertson, Nunez on offense, and even Noesi in limited and unpredictable appearances have shown that they can play MLB caliber baseball. While none of these players are necessarily huge impact players (D-Rob may be an exception but he still a reliever) they still provide the Yankees with players that provide value, depth, and trade chips for the Yankees to use to put themselves over the top. Hopefully in the next couple of years us fans can talk about players such as Banuelos, Adams, Joseph, Romine, Montero, and Betances have helped the Yankees in 2012 and 2013. Even though Cashman has not been the best GM out there he has assembled a team that has laid a foundation for the continuing success of the Yankees through young cost controlled players and hopefully he decides to stay on past this year.

Tom

I agree with most of this. However, as someone old enough to have rooted for the 1952 Yankees and to have suffered 1965 Shock, when the unthinkable happened, I must say I worry about some ominous signs on this time.

Father Time signs. We’ve seen it Jeter and Posada. It’s not out of the question that Mariano may begin to show evidence of it also. The great Yankee dynasties always needed a component of great of Hall of Fame type guys (Ruth, Gehrig, Dimag, Mantle, Reggie, etc.). They really need now to start developing some super calibre pitchers. Banuelos and Betances, I hope, will fill that bill. But young pitchers….

And then there is A-Rod, with some signs of the age process now showing (if only as propensity to injury).

God, 1965 was awful, for Yankee fans. Only Bill Veeck seems to have seen it coming.

Guest

I can’t imagine what a shock 1965-75 must have been after all the greatness that came before it.

But I don’t think we need to be too worried about the near future.

Yes the “Core 4 plus one more (Arod)” are either retired, in decline, or testing the upper limits of father time, but the Yankees have huge stars in the prime of their career that can carry this team.

CC-Tex-Cano-Granderson is as good a core to build a team around as any in the game. If, (big if), Montero is the Montero of our dreams and one of the young pitchers pans out, I think we won’t have have to worry about 1965 repeating itself.

Murph1010

watching the game last night made me miss the old yankee stadium. i loved that atmosphere. stadium was PACKED.

Freddy Garcia’s 86 mph Heat

Predictions for the homestand? I say 5-1. Take 2/3 from the Angels and sweep the Rays.

http://bleedingyankeeblue.com Jesse

3-3. lose two of three to the angels, win two of three from tampa.
sorry for being pessimistic.

https://twitter.com/TheRealJeromeS Jerome S.

Sorry, but the Angels have been pretty beatable for the past few years now.

Jorge

10-0 homestand. Book it.

Dino Velvet

Bill Simmons was on ESPN saying Boston has the best bullpen in baseball.

Brian S.

San Francisco would like a word with him.

Sarah

That’s pretty funny. San Francisco begs to differ, to say nothing of the Yanks.

vin

In other news… the sky is blue, and the ocean is wet.

Charles

I saw that, he also said the usual “Boston is better at everything” bullshit and even on sportsnation.

Sidenote, anyone glad that Wakefield is getting roughed up? Not that I hate the guy, but because ESPN is there and I just want them to shut up about the Sox for once…

Oh by the way, I ordered some RAB shirts, not that anyone should care! Gonna be sporting those with pride lol.

http://misjudgedbytheexperts godfather

The colossal miscue by the experts re DiMaggio is that he was so much better than generally given credit for. He was, of course, big in the big city, so a general reaction prevailed that he wouldn’t be all that were he not in Gotham. Couldn’t be more wrong. His iconic status actually worked against him because it was easier for the press to just go along and not dig for facts. As Bill James wrote, no one was hurt more by his home park as a batter than was the DiMaggio. I once wrote an article detailing the home and away figures for the likes of Ruth, Gehrig, Williams, Musial and more than a dozen others. The streak has been heralded for years, but it is never mentioned that he hit in 61 straight in the Pacific Coast League in 1933. His ego was mammoth, yes. But his skills measured up to it, bigtime.